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He might bear it all for us,-the transference of legal condemnation and divine displeasure
from us to Him, that only acquittal, and pardon, and favor and love might belong to us.
"Thy wrath lieth hard upon me" (Psa_88:7), are the words of the Sin-bearer; and that this
was felt in a measure all His life through (though consummated on the cross), is shewn by
what follows : "I am afflicted and ready to die ("sorrowful unto death") from my youth
up" (Psa_88:15). The sinless One made sin for the sinful is the pervading doctrine of both
Testaments; such books as Leviticus and the Epistle to the Hebrews are unintelligible
otherwise. It is this that so strongly and awfully establishes the doctrine of eternal
recompense for sin. If sin deserves no eternal wrath, what an unmeaning thing is this
divine sin-bearing! What a gratuitous expenditure of labour, and suffering, and death.
II. The unrighteousness becoming the righteousness of God in the righteous One. The
name of our Substitute is, "Jehovah our Righteousness"; and the justifying righteousness
is called by an apostle, "the righteousness of Him who is our God and Saviour, Jesus
Christ" (2Pe_1:1). Thus the "righteousness of God" amid the "righteousness of Christ" are
declared to be the same, and our common use of the expression, "the righteousness of
Christ," is amply vindicated from the cavils of Socinians and others of like mind. Luther
exhorted the brethren to learn, as their constant song of praise, "Lord Jesus, thou art my
righteousness, and I thy sin." So must we, if we would enjoy Luther's doctrine, his twofold
teaching, "That a man is justified by faith, and that he is to know that he is justified." We
are "unrighteous." There is no question as to that. Yet, says the apostle, "We become (not
merely "righteous," but) the righteousness of God," in this righteous One. What is ours
passes over to Him; what is His passes over to us. We become righteousness! As if, from
the moment that we believe God's testimony to the righteous One and His work, we and
righteousness become one and the same thing. So completely are we justified, and lifted
up into the same righteous level or standing which the righteous One himself occupies in
the sight of God. Thus are we "complete in Him,"-"found in Him,"-recognized as one with
Him in righteousness, and entitled to possess all He possesses. What a transference! And
how simply effected! Receive the Father's testimony to the righteousness of the beloved
Son, and all that righteousness becomes yours! O man, canst thou refuse an exchange like
this? A salvation so complete, so perfect and divine.
Yes; "It is finished!" On the cross it was finished. Then the blood was shed with which the
sinner is sprinkled and purged in conscience; and all that followed (both resurrection and
ascension) assumed the completion of the great sacrifice on Golgotha. Then the
righteousness was finished also, in virtue of which we are "accepted in the Beloved."
During all the preceding ages the voice of each sacrifice laid on the altar, morning and
evening, was, "It is not finished;" but then the one voice of the one Sacrifice proclaimed
before earth and heaven, "It is finished." Nothing was from that moment to be added to it
or taken from it. All was done.
It is the ministry of this "righteousness" that is now preached to the unrighteous. There
are many "ministries." There is the ministry of "the word" (Act_6:4); the ministry of "the
grace" (Act_20:24); the ministry of "the reconciliation" (2Co_5:18); the ministration of
"the Spirit" (2Co_3:8). There is also the ministry of "the righteousness" (2Co_3:9).
Righteousness for the unrighteous is God's message to the world; righteousness for those
whose only' qualification is, that they need it; righteousness to the most unrighteous of
the sons of men; for it is to the wretched prodigal, the wanderer in the far country, that
the Father says, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him."
In Jesus, the sinner's substitute, we have "the perfect One." God sees perfection in Him.
But this perfection, while it detects and condemns our imperfection, provides also for its
forgiveness. It is by means of this perfection that God is enabled to deal in love with our
imperfection, however great and manifold it may be. The good swallows up the evil, and
yet is not tainted thereby. The sinner hands over his sins to the perfect One; and the
perfect One hands over His perfection to the sinner. Thus, by reason of this blessed
transference or exchange, the imperfect one becomes as the perfect One in the sight of
God, and is dealt with as such in regard to all favor and blessing. Perfection covers
imperfection, and the believing sinner stands "complete" in the perfect One: "accepted in
the Beloved." Crediting God's testimony to the perfect One, and His perfect sacrifice, we
stand before God on a new footing,-as men who have "become the righteousness of God
in Him,"-and who now get life, and peace, and pardon, and blessing, simply because the
perfect One has deserved it for them. We have all in Him.